Little Moon
by TotallyWeird
Summary: To Sakura's dismay, it was clear that they were destined for each other. But if their union would help her protect those who were precious to her, she wasn't going to back down. Was previously titled Flowers and Demons.
1. Welcoming Hell

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Summary: To Sakura's dismay, it was clear that they were destined for each other. But if their union would help her protect those who were precious to her, she wasn't going to back down.

Chapter 1: Welcoming Hell

* * *

She stared down at the man. He was whimpering, though Sakura couldn't blame him. He knew who she was. He knew why she was there, and he knew what was going to happen to him. Her pink locks, the proud way she had stalked towards him, and her outfit, it all told him who she was. The _Kyokugaisha_.

Crouching down beside his quivering form, she simply stared at him a moment, before leaning in. "Where is it?"

"W-where is w-what?" the man attempted bravely, aware that she was unnerved by his attempt at innocence.

"The scroll," she explained, her voice low, steady and dangerous. "Konoha knows you have it."

The poor man widened his eyes in devastation. "No one must ever read it!" He exclaimed.

The kunoichi cocked her head. "Is that so?"

"Yes, it contains extremely fatal information should it end up in the wrong hands!"

Kyokugaisha merely snorted. "Good thing I'm here then." She drew a kunai against his cheek. "Now tell me where you've hid it, and I'll consider letting you live, depending on what this extremely fatal information is."

The man swallowed hard, and weighed his options for a few moments. Then he let out an exasperated sigh, and hurled himself at the kunoichi, who without difficulty instantly pinned him against the wall, kunai now cutting the skin of his throat slightly, other hand harshly prodding his shoulder, holding him in place.

"Now, we can do this two ways," the Kyokugaisha whispered into his ear, sending unpleasant chills down his spine. "Either you tell me the location now, or I torture you into telling me." A low soft terrifying laugh emitted from her, turning the man even colder before. "Or we could always go for option three, my favorite. I extend the location right from your brain, which is an awfully slow and painful process, and very, very fatal, even with my expertise."

Shutting his eyes closed, the man did the smartest thing he could in a situation like this. "I-it's in my front vest pocket."

He could almost see the slight pleased smile forming her lips as she used the hand previously holding him in place to acquire the object of her mission. Apparently she found what she was looking for as she quickly hopped back ten feet, making a secure distance between the two of them. She used a seal to turn the scroll into its proper generous size, and rolled it out to observe its content.

She remained impassive while she gazed at it, standing impossibly still, until her head turned towards the man. "Where did you find this?" Her voice low and demanding.

"I stumbled upon it while digging in my new potato-field."

"You mean to say it was a sheer coincidence that you found this?" she asked incredulously, disbelieving.

The man nodded. "Yes."

The moons reflection shone on her mask as she gazed up at the night sky. "I see. Well, since it is doubtful that others have heard of the whereabouts of this scroll, I shall leave you."

The man sighed in relief and wonder, that things had happened as smoothly and with no casualties. "Then all is well, suppose."

The Kyokugaisha's head snapped towards him, and her emerald eyes glinted through the masks holes. "After I've erased your memory, that is."

* * *

Normally Sakura would have knocked on the door that led to the Hokage's office with a happy smile plastered over her face. But this wasn't the time for friendly affections. No, this was the time where Sakura had to hold her head high while her leader made the most important decision in Sakura's life.

Sakura wasn't stupid. She was well aware of her responsibilities. The personal responsibilities which she had chosen to take on on her own. The responsibilities of protecting her loved ones.

In a pool of whirling smoke she appeared in front of a worn Tsunade, and held out the scroll towards the old woman, while bowing her head slightly in respect. "Shishou. I have collected the scroll. I advise that you read it at once."

With one quirked eyebrow the mighty leader took the scroll, un scrolled it and eyed it wearily. Knowing that her apprentice already knew of its contents, she didn't bother hiding her emotions as she took in the troubling information. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her lips formed a straight line.

Once finished, she rescrolled it and set it down on the desk in front of her. "Sakura, I will get straight to the point. This scroll leaves me with no choice but to depend on your strength, as we both know that you are much more capable of this than me."

"Yes, Shishou," Sakura replied, fighting down the fear and sorrow inside her as her heart wrenched. She needed to be dead-on. She needed to be reliable. She would not let her emotions get the best of her. Or so she wished.

Watching her leaders' torn look as she took in the words that confirmed that yes, Sakura was more suited for this than the one she respected the most, a lump formed in her throat. She tried to swallow it back. She really did. But there was nothing she could do to prevent the tears escaping from her eyes. She hated the way she could stay impassive, emotionless while being the Kyokugaisha, but couldn't hold her feelings to herself while in the presence of her loved ones. Instead, in an attempt to protect her pride, Sakura held Tsunades' gaze, her determination obvious.

Her Shishou let out a devastated sigh. "Sakura, I'm sorry. I'd do it myself if I thought I could. I know I've told you this many times before, but you have the best chakra control of all the ninjas I have heard of, and your abilities are so exceptional that they're unbelievable. Never in my life did I dream of stumbling by someone like you."

Sakura's cheeks reddened at her Shishous' generous rare praises. "Thank you," she said meekly.

"The only problem will be Naruto," Tsunades' eyes hardened. "He will not like this. Not at all. It will most likely be necessary to use force."

Sakura winced. As always when there was a threat against her best friend. "Tsunade-sama," she said, finding the strength to steady her voice. "I would like to be the one to inform him. I believe it will be easier for me to convince him than anyone else."

The blond just watched her for a moment, contemplating. Then she nodded. "Fine. Now go get something to eat, take a nice long bath and rest. Talk to Naruto tomorrow."

* * *

A sigh found its way past her lips as her teeth sank into her heavenly sandwich. She tried to form a plan, but it wasn't working to well. She needed to persuade Naruto. She needed to persuade him to let her hold his life in her hands, literally, while risking her own as well as the rest of the villagers' lives. If she failed, Naruto would be _ordered_ to do so, and she knew that he'd refuse. And when he refused, he would instead be forced. That would lead to either him becoming a missing-nin, or him being injured. Which Sakura certainly wasn't going to allow, if she had any say in it.

And then there was always _him_. That stoic cocky boy who had been her love interest, who had grown into a man, and who had once again become a precious part of team 7. Yes, _him. _Sasuke would find a way to get in the middle of it, and Sakura wasn't quite sure if he'd take her side, or Narutos' side.

Sakura slid out of her anbu-uniform, and wadded of into her bathroom. As she passed her mirror she couldn't help but sneak a peek at her reflection. Oh, she looked like shit, alright. Days and nights of searching for essential scrolls could do that to you.

Turning on the water in her bath and adjusting it to be just the right temperature, she returned to her sink, and peered into her reflection once again. Dark rings had formed under her eyes, and her skin had sunk in, as evidence of the lack of nutrients she'd had over the last week. And her hair. Her hair looked like some kind of freak show, pink bangs sticking out in every single angle, and the rest of her hair tangled up against her front as she drew it over her shoulders. She eyed it wondering if she should cut it again.

But decided not to. Her waist-long hair was a proof of a new, strong Sakura. The proof of her realizing that it didn't matter to a strong kunoichi whether her hair was cut short or long. Long hair doesn't bother a powerful shinobi. And she liked having something to play with when she was bored.

Sighing, she reached for her brush and as she worked her way through her hair she let her mind go numb. She was exhausted both mentally and physically. She'd think about it after she'd taken her bath, when her mind would be fresher.

But her thoughts seemed to find a way to crawl back to the matters revolving Naruto. So as she sunk into the warm water, letting her tense muscles relax, she leaned her head back against the hard edge of the bathtub and stared at the ceiling. Tears formed in her eyes and sneaked their way down her cheeks, and she let them. Afer all, she was most likely goingto be forced to leave her home, Konoha, and start a new life.

Hell was going to start know, she just knew it.

* * *

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed happily when he'd opened his front door to find his pink haired teammate there. "Are you here to accept my undying love for you?" he asked, a with his great ear-to-ear signature grin. Then he cringed, expecting the usual fist-to-head from Sakura, but was surprised when it never came.

"Hey Naruto," she greeted, a small smile spread over her lips. "I need to talk to you."

"Eh?" Naruto was dumbfounded by the sudden seriousness in her voice. "Has-"he started, but was cut off.

"What's happened?" came Sasuke's voice from behind him.

Sakura's heart dropped. Sasuke was here? She didn't want him to be here when she explained the news for Naruto. It would make this so much harder than it already was.

"What?" He asked distrustfully when he saw her immediate displeasure at seeing him.

"Oh, it's not you," she explained quickly. "It's just…" she trailed of, not knowing what to say.

"Well, come in then, we're letting all the warm air escape," Naruto said and ushered her into his small apartment, closing the door behind her.

"Um, so, what was it you wanted to tell me?" Naruto then asked carefully, sitting down in his sofa, mentioning for the other two to do the same.

Sasuke sat down, leaving space between him and Naruto for her, but Sakura stood on her spot in front of the sofa. She eyed Sasuke, whishing for him to get her point and leave. But he remained unmoving in his spot, staring at her with a stoic gaze. He wasn't going to leave until she told him too, and she couldn't bring herself to do so. So instead, she mentally sighed, and thought that he'd find out later anyways, so what was the big deal? Well, his opinions about the whole thing was the big deal.

"Sasuke," said Sakura. "I want you to keep your thoughts to yourself until we know what Naruto thinks. Can you do that for me? No matter what I'm about to tell you?"

He observed her a moment before nodding briefly.

"Thank you," she sighed, and then turned her emerald eyes to Naruto, who seemed to have grown a little nervous and inpatient. "Naruto. This is extremely important. And there are no options for you. I am not going to be asking you of this, I'm going to be ordering you, because this is highly necessary." She sighed and pulled a hand through her hair, while shooting a quick glance at Sasuke, making sure he didn't look like he was going to say anything. But she couldn't read his expression, as he'd carefully turned it blank.

"You both know that Akatsuki are planning something, and have almost succeeded in collecting all of the tailed demons. And they will probably invade Konohagakure." She took a deep breath. "To get the Kyuubi, and if things go their way, you, Naruto, will die and the world will be in danger.

He cringed at this. "What's your point?"

"Well, you both know that I just returned from a mission, last night." Naruto nodded. "I was to retrieve a scroll that contains information about the tailed demons, and especially the ten-tailed demon. The scroll was written by the Sage of the Six Paths' himself."

Both boys were startled by this. It was surreal and overwhelming that the grounder of the ninjaworld and sealer of the ten-tailed beast himself had written the scroll. It had once been said that he was a legend, only a fictional character who would serve as a good bedtime story for small children, but Naruto and Sasuke had learned that the man was so much more, he was a hero.

"Wow, have you read it?" Naruto asked in awe.

Sakura nodded. And grief washed through her, and she knew they noticed. "It's not as glorious as one would think," her voice sounded a little too strangled for Sakura's liking.

"However, that is not the point," she said, as a reminder to herself as much as to them. "The scroll withheld all information about useable seals and summoning of the demons. And pretty much everything else about the demon. And," she took a deep breath," it is going to serve as a savior for us."

"How?" asked Sasuke, breaking his promise to be quiet.

Sakura swallowed. "By extracting the demon out of Naruto," she said, and paused as her boys expressions turned into incredulous, anger and disbelief.

"What?" Naruto asked, edging away from her.

"You mean, instead of letting the Akatsuki kill him, we'll do it ourselves?" Sasuke asked, wondering if Sakura was just being very uncharacteristic and pulling a very, very evil prank on them.

"Yes," Sakura said, and met Naruto's hurt gaze dead on. "_But_, that doesn't mean he'll die. I would never agree to this if you were to die, Naruto, you know that. And there will be no 'we' extracting the kyuubi. There will only be _me_. And I will return Naruto back to life."

Narutos' eyes widened in anger and his brows furrowed together. "NO!" He screamed and jumped up to stand right in front of Sakura, making her take a step back in surprise. "I won't let you!" He shouted furiously.

"Naruto you-" she attempted, since he was obviously jumping to conclusions, but was cut off by Sasuke, now standing next to Naruto.

"I don't approve of this either," he said coolly, his voice disapproving, and then he added in a end-of-discussion way, "there is no way that we will let you sacrifice yourself by using that self-sacrificing technique."

Sakura closed her eyes momentarily and then glared up at the two very upset shinobi. _Both_ of them were jumping to conclusions. "Let me finish. I do not need your approval when deciding things. And I won't be using that jutsu. _And_, if things work out right, no one will be dead."

"But what of the Kyuubi then?" Naruto interrupted again. "What will you do with him?"

"And what do you mean 'if things work out right'? Then there might be casualties anyway?" Sasuke added.

"Let me finish, damnit," she growled. "This is as hard for me as it is for you! Go sit down!" She ordered, waving her hand at the sofa. "Sit!"

The boys reluctantly obeyed, sitting down stiffly, as they waited for her to continue.

"It will work. I am positive of it. Just trust me, it was a stupid manner of speech, and I shouldn't have said it that way." She said, even though it was a lie. There was no way of saying that this would work out for sure. But her boys didn't need to know that. "I will not die, due to the fact that I'll be using a technique from the scroll. Which I will need help to do," she looked at Sasuke, "since it is kind of a group requiring technique. The technique is actually a transferring technique. And since the object we'll be transferring it to needs to have an immense chakra control, it will be me."

"WHAT!" Naruto roared in rage, towering over Sakura once again. "NO!"

"Naruto," she pleaded, "it is necessary for-"

"I don't give **a shit**", Narutos voice turned to a growl as the Kyuubi was starting to move inside him as a result of his heavy upset. "**Nothing** is necessary enough to make you go through **that**."

Rage boiled in him, and Sakura ignored the instinct that told her to coil back. Instead she took him on, to show that she wasn't going to back down. "Naruto," this time her voice was soft, but firm by determination, "this _is_ necessary enough. Do you know how many lives will be risked if we don't do this? I won't die, I'll just live with the Kyuubi in me."

"**Just? Sakura, you don't know what you'll have to go through!**" he grabbed her upper arms tightly. "**I'll probably end up killing you.**"

Sakura flinched at those words, but then realized they had come from the kyuubi, and not Naruto. "I told you, I won't die. I'll have you and Sasuke there by my side, supporting me, together with Tsunade-sama and Kakashi-sensei, and Sai and Ino, and everyone else." She wasn't about to let some demon turn her mentally insane.

"**Sakura**… _please_, I..." Naruto trailed off.

She sent him a reassuring smile. "I promise, Naruto, that things will end up just fine if you just accept it."

He pulled her into a tight embrace, and held her a while. With her head against his chest, she could hear his hearts' rapid pounding. Someone placed a hand on his shoulder causing him to jump slightly and squeeze Sakura. He looked over his shoulder to find Sasuke there.

"Naruto, you need to accept." He said softly. Maybe it was a good thing he was here, after all.

Naruto just stared at him for a moment, before he stuffed his face into Sakura's hair, and sobbed slightly.

* * *

He had agreed at last.

When Sakura had left him he had looked quite drained, empty, as if his life-force had decapitated. Sakura winced at the memory. Maybe it had. If she were in his clothes, she'd be devastated that the one she'd had a crush on was going to take on the curse she'd had as long as she could remember.

Now she was to head for Tsunade's office, in order to find out when the transferring was to occur.

Oh yes, she thought, hell certainly is beginning.

* * *

Oops. Mybe I should be working on Conquering instead. Oh well, I couldn't help it, I just felt like writing this.

Oh, and the whole Kyokugaisha thing will be explained better later. And try to ignore failed grammar. English is kinda my second language. So sorry.

Well, everyone, I really appreciate your reviews, so please, review. :)


	2. Feigned Encouraging Smiles

Team seven as genin had always been immature, impatient and generally annoying. After Sasuke had betrayed them, they went different ways; Naruto headed out to train with Jiraiya, Sasuke sought strength to kill his brother by turning to Orochimaru, and Sakura, wanting to get stronger, had decided to ask Tsunade for help.

It was easy to notice their growth, both mentally and physically. Once they'd reformed, the trio became famous through their successful missions; hundreds of them, all completed without further ado. They were never to be called immature, impatient or annoying again, and as their villagers loved them and praised them and waved at them gleefully when they strolled by, their enemies cowered with fear and ran away with their tails between their legs.

Team seven had gained respect.

And even though Sakura was highly aware of this - took pride in it, even - she now doubted her own capability. The wait for the transfer almost drove her over the edge with anxiety and the nervous lump in her stomach just wouldn't go away. And not being able to share these feelings with her loved ones wasn't helping her at all. Tsunade had insisted that Sakura was the one who needed to do this and no one else. Now, if Sakura were to tell anyone of her doubt in herself, she'd probably just worry them. So no, this burden was for Sakura to bear, and Sakura alone.

Two sleepless nights had gone by and she hadn't had any appetite. Sakura knew this was extremely bad. She needed to stay fresh and healthy for the transfer, which she most certainly was not. When Tsunade noticed this as well, she gave Sakura a drink that would supposedly help you sleep. It was a miraculous thing, Sakura had mused, until she had awoken in the late morning screaming bloody murder and drenched in a cold sweat. Then she wasn't quite so glad about it. The scenes in her nightmare had kept rolling in her mind fluently, as if they enjoyed torturing Sakura. The Kyuubi escaped, Naruto was torn apart, her friends died, and her home burned, over and over again. All because she could never be good enough.

Sakura had started to franticly pace around in her tiny apartment in an attempt to calm her mind. But the disturbing mental pictures wouldn't stop haunting her, and as a result of this, she had desperately opened her window and leapt out through it, bouncing over the roofs of the buildings and into the training grounds.

She had this favorite one, with a bunch of handmade rocks and hills created out of pure chakra. She loved smashing them into dust, wasting away all her chakra when she was upset about something.

So there she was, crumbling the innocent mountains with her bare fists, the evening sun shining wickedly at her. Hoping the horrifying images would flow out with her energy, she pushed herself, letting out small cries of pure frustration as she swung herself at rock after rock.

She was still in her night gown and slippers, no gloves to protect her hands. But she didn't wince at or even mind the pain of the skin on her knuckles cracking. She didn't even notice the sticky blood dripping down her fingers; she was too stressed out.

The tears filling her eyes blurred her vision, but she couldn't care. She was falling apart, her nightmare feeling more and more like reality. The responsibility of this mission was far too great; she didn't _want_ to hold the entire village's life in her hands.

"Dumb, dumb, dumb!" she almost screeched. She'd been so oblivious and innocent, so young and unknowing when she decided to become a ninja. She had been driven into becoming a ninja only to get closer to Sasuke. Sasuke-kun this, Sasuke-kun that. She hadn't understood the full meaning of being a kunoichi. She hadn't understood the sacrifices it took, the guts it took, the strength and the willpower it took. If she'd been Naruto, so strong willed and brave, it would've been so much easier. Or maybe Sasuke, with his composure and focus.

She just didn't want to let them down.

Finally, she sank down into a crumble of small rocks, hanging her head and letting her bangs fall down in her eyes. She felt numb. What was she thinking? She wasn't thinking straight. She was strong, just emotional, a little voice in the back of her head said. She shouldn't ever regret becoming a shinobi, no matter what. Just think about all the lives she had saved, all the innocent children she had helped. And now, if she succeeded - which she told herself she most definitely would - she'd finally be able to save Naruto. Not only him, but possibly the whole world. She was to prevent the Akatsuki from laying their hands on him. And she _would_ succeed.

A voice snapped Sakura out of her thoughts, and her eyes widened as they took in the mess she'd caused. The air was full of whirling dust, and there was no sign of big hills or rocks anymore. Only small stones lay about, tossed around by Sakura.

"I thought I'd find you here." Was all the voice said, followed by a heavy sigh.

A forced smile spread over Sakura's mouth, and she wondered what the man saw as he gazed worriedly down at her. Her eyes were most definitely puffy from all the crying and still the drops wouldn't stop streaming down her flushed cheeks.

"Good evening, Kakashi-sensei," she greeted politely, bobbing her head.

He crouched down in front of her, never letting go of her gaze. "Don't see what's so good about it."

She didn't answer, just averted her eyes.

He emitted a be-grieved sigh. "Sakura, I know what you're going through. And I know it's not easy, but it'll be worth it."

She smiled, but her heart wasn't in it. "That's what I've been telling myself."

He continued. "Tsunade-sama says you're the only one fit for it. You know she'd never lie about something like that."

"That's what she's been telling me."

"You're a wonder, you know," he sighed. "It's been killing me that anyone can obtain such immense chakra control. I've never met anyone like you. And I've never believed in anyone as much I believe that you will accomplish this easily, Sakura."

At this, she looked up at him, wide-eyed. Did he mean it? "Really?" she whispered.

"Yeah, and I've spoken with Naruto and Sasuke, and they agree with me." He assured her.

Sakura bloomed up slightly, blushing a shade of deep red, as her heart hopped in joy. The burden was still there pulling her down, but it wasn't as heavy now. "Thank you."

The easy smile on Kakashi's face was visible even through his mask. "Now that you've brightened up, the boys and I want to take you out for dinner."

Sakura puffed. "You mean they persuaded you into asking me out," she accused teasingly, swiping her tears away with the back of her hand.

"Ouch," Kakashi said as they made their way towards the road. "It's sad how well you guys know me."

Sakura smiled at him. "Oh, Kakashi-sensei, you'll always be a mystery to us." Which was true. They'd never truly understand this man; he was always full of surprises. But she had learnt a few things about him over the past. He valued his friends more than anything else, even more than - though he'd never admit it - those perverse books of his. He always knew when she needed reassuring, and always knew how to give it to her. And he always knew where to find her. He'd become somewhat of a second dad or maybe a brother to her.

"Hm," he replied, snatching up said perverse book of his from his pocket, and started reading. "By the way, you might want to take a quick visit home."

"What?" she asked, giving him a puzzled look.

"People might give you funny looks if you run around in a night gown and bunny slippers."

The shade of her blush clashed horribly with the color of her hair.

* * *

And then, an enjoyable afternoon dinner later, she fell head first into her bed. It had been fun, really. Sasuke and Naruto picking on each other as always, Kakashi had put in small comments and annoyed the hell out of them, and Sakura had just laughed at them. The never ending buzz of peoples talk in the small restaurant had surrounded them, and Sakura had amazingly been lost in the moment of happiness, overwhelmed by how much at home she had felt in the company of her boys.

But at the moment she had stepped through the door to her apartment it all seemed like a happy memory that took place a long time ago, and the empty pit in her stomach had returned full force.

Now, she stuffed her face into her pillow, and sneaked a peak at her bedtime watch. 1:36 am. That meant there was only about thirty hours left. She wondered absentmindedly how the villagers would react. The vast amount of chakra that was going to spread through the morning air was great enough for even a normal citizen to notice, and it was enough to freak out the lesser shinobi. Though it was unavoidable, and she wondered if Tsunade would tell them. She wondered how they'd react. A new Jinchuuriki? Would they be unable to accept her, as they'd been unable to accept Naruto in the beginning? She couldn't possibly know.

In that moment she knew she didn't want to sleep alone. Despite the fact that Sakura'd wanted to get a bigger apartment, it felt big, hollow, and empty. She went through the different options she had. She could go to Naruto, Sasuke or Kakashi, but she'd already spent the day with them. She had been with the girls yesterday. And then she thought about that other friend, her other teammate: Sai. He had been gone on a mission the last couple of days, but he should be home now.

Deciding on that, she hopped out of bed and packed her toothbrush, brush, pajamas and a clean set of underwear, before dashing out through of the apartment and strode down the street.

It was an awful quiet night. Normally, she'd see a group of drunkies here and there, and a couple of people returning home from late shifts. But the only people Sakura met on her path were a young couple who were - by the looks of it - retiring from a party. The couple was leaning into each other, cuddling as if they didn't have a care in the world. At the sight of their obvious love for each other, Sakura couldn't help but feel even gloomier. When her body became the Kyuubi vessel, would she be able to have a love life? Was it going to destroy all her chances of having a normal family? Would the demon influence her personality? So many questions, yet so few answers. The unknown seemed to be enough to crush her at the moment.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she stopped in front of her teammate's apartment. She didn't even have the time to knock before the door swung open, revealing a worn-out, half-naked Sai wearing only a pair of sweatpants. The accustomed fake smile was plastered over his lips as he stood aside to let her in.

"How was your mission?" she asked, trying to not feel too out of place.

"It was as terrific as all other assassinations," he stated.

She huffed out a sigh and sat down on the end of his bed. Many times she had wondered how she and Sai had bonded as much as they had. She never got any reasonable answers. His faked smiles had pissed her off, and still did. His sarcasm likewise. But when she had noticed that he really was trying to be civilized and fit in, she couldn't help wanting to help him. Thus she had started to invite him to small groupies and parties; she started to hang out with him. He had been suspicious at first, wondering what her sudden change in demeanor was about, but then she noticed he had secretively been thankful.

And then when she had lost her parents, she had been with him. It was probably the biggest step he'd taken so far: to console her. He had lent a shoulder to cry on, and she had stayed the night. She thought it uncharacteristic of him, but then she understood that he was probably just lonely. They'd fallen asleep next to each other, holding hands. And Sakura loved the comfort of having him there; she wouldn't be able to be this intimate in a friendly way with Naruto, Sasuke or Kakashi. If she'd gone to any of her girlfriends, they'd probably end up crying with her, and she really didn't want that. Sai's silent consoling was all she needed. All she really wanted.

Then the inevitable had happened. She had fallen for him. It confused her at first, but then her feelings turned sort of natural. So one late evening at her apartment, she had given in to the urge to kiss him. He had been slightly startled by her sudden move, she'd noticed, and didn't return the kiss. He hadn't done anything mean though, thankfully. He'd only leaned away from her, and stated that he wasn't interested in her in that way at all. Even though he did love her, like a friend or maybe even a sister. Sakura had been hurt, but they'd still been able to stay friends. And when he finally depended the truth on her, her hurt had disappeared almost completely.

He was asexual.

And now that she thought about it, she had to admit it wasn't too shocking. He'd never been interested in anyone, or even seemed attracted to anyone. Every time she'd talked about love he'd seemed kind of distant. And secretly, she was glad he wasn't in love with someone else, since that would mean he'd be taken away from her.

So it only seemed natural to go to him once again. And he liked her company - or seemed to, at least. It was hard to tell when it came to Sai; he wasn't as open with his emotions as Sakura was.

Sai leaned against the wall and watched her. "You want to spend the night?"

She nodded. "I really don't want to be alone right now."

"I'll be taking a shower," he said, but remained unmoving. "I just came back from Tsunade-sama's office after hearing some rather interesting news that I guess you'd like to talk about later."

"Then you know?"

"I promised to help," and then he headed for his bathroom and shut the door closed after him.

"…Oh," was all she managed to respond. And it was all she managed to think too. Of course he'd be there. Him and all the rest of her shinobi friends. All that could control their chakra enough would be great help. All her closest friends would be there. Witnessing her. Helping her. Supporting her. And being right in the middle of one of the most dangerous events that would take place in Konoha. "Of course."

Running water could be heard and Sakura started to change into her pajamas. She caught sight of Sai's sketchpad on his bedside table. She reached over and snatched it, opening it to observe the many drawings in it. A tiny smile spread over her lips; she knew all of these sketches by heart. She flipped the pages, one after one, and then her breath got caught in her throat as she got to the last one and her smile died.

It was a new drawing.

He must have drawn it after he'd come home from his mission; after being informed by Tsunade. It was a drawing of Sakura, dancing in a meadow, with streams of moonlight sneaking through the branches and leaves overhead. A strange orange glow encircled her body, her open laughing mouth exposed sharp teeth, and she had three lines on each of her cheeks. They reminded her of whiskers. Her hair was longer, going down to her knees, and swayed around her, following her body's movement.

Sakura tilted her head, an expression of grief showing in her eyes. There was the outline of a shadow behind her. It resembled an enormous shape of a feline creature, and Sakura gasped when she understood what the picture was, snapping the pad closed and setting it quickly back onto the nightstand.

She proceeded to brush her hair, deciding not to think about the troubling picture. It was to no help though; her thoughts kept wandering back to it. Why had Sai drawn something like that? She wondered then how she was supposed to interpret it. In the sketch she had looked happy, free. She had been laughing without any care in the world. Did Sai believe the transfer would help her? It would set her free?

But wasn't she already free? She had everything she wanted; loving friends, a home to return to, a job where she could help others, and a purpose. She was content with her life. But was that the same thing as freedom? The answer was no. But then again, there was no such thing as complete freedom. Not even for the S-classed Missing-nin had complete freedom; they constantly had to run away from those chasing them. And, Sakura thought, the question wasn't right. The question was; was she satisfied with her life, and the freedom she had now? Yes, she was. She wasn't in need for any changes.

She almost jumped when the bathroom door swung open and out strode a freshly showered Sai in new clean sweatpants. The air filled with the musky scent of Sai, and she smiled halfheartedly at him.

He shot her a weird look that she couldn't interpret before heading for his closet and pulling out the thick blanket and a pillow she always used and tossed them to the bed. Then he turned to stare at her. "You sure you want to do this?"

She knew exactly what he meant, and sighed exasperatedly. "Aren't you supposed to be supporting me?"

"I am supporting you, and I believe that no one could possibly accomplish this but you." He drawled, face blank of emotions. "But you don't want to do this, do you?"

That 'if anyone, it's you' speech was slowly getting overused. Sakura contemplated. "I don't know. I'm afraid of messing up, but if it works it's worth it. I'll do anything it takes to protect Naruto."

"I see. Then I won't question you any further," was all he commented. He then proceeded to make the bed, the two sets of bedding neatly laid out next to each other.

Sakura watched him, and then plodded into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Once returning to the one and only other room in Sai's tiny apartment, she saw Sai stretched out under his covers, hands behind his head, eyes closed. She knew he wasn't sleeping; he never fell asleep before she had crept into bed when she was spending the night. She had yet to figure out why, but suspected he liked that little bedtime conversation.

So as she slid under her own blanket, also lying down on her back, basking in the warmth and softness of it, he proved her right by starting the conversation.

"You looked in my sketchpad," was all he said.

"Yes, I did." She answered truthfully. She'd done it so many times before, and he'd never minded. "How did you know?"

"It's in a different angle than how I left it."

"Ah," she mused; leave it to Sai to be the observant shinobi.

A silence stretched out after that, neither of them saying that one comment: 'what had she thought of that last picture?'

Sakura turned her head to get a look of him, noticing that he was staring blankly up at the ceiling. "What was that last drawing all about?"

A faint smile spread over his lips. "I was inspired."

"Huh?" she was bemused by his short explanation. It wasn't complicated, but she didn't believe for one second that that was everything behind it.

He turned his head to lock eyes with her. "I was musing over how you'll react to being fused with the Kyuubi. You'll probably turn into a great warrior."

She scoffed."A great warrior? I'll probably just turn crazy. Or maybe I'll get so overdramatic that I'll drive you guys crazy," she yawned.

He flashed her a fake smile. "Why, of course, your ego will turn overemotional and come out and demolish us all."

She rolled her eyes while inwardly marveling in enjoyment. She really did relax in Sai's presence. But then again… "You know I don't like it when you mention her."

"Kyokugaisha? I wasn't talking about her."

"Hm," she said before drawling on about her other self. "She came out again. On the mission, I mean."

"Now it's you talking about her. And isn't that a good thing?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "Though I _am_ more effective when she takes over."

"You do know that she is you, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I just like calling my mission mode 'her' since that way I can distance myself a little from the fear my nickname induces everywhere it's mentioned."

"Ah, but it's a good thing to have respect when on a mission, so you shouldn't worry."

She snorted. "I don't want respect through fear, I want respect by earning it. I just can't help but let out my more ruthless side while on missions."

"It's still a good thing. It might help you while carrying the Kyuubi."

She blinked at him. He was right. It probably would help. The hard, mean, unemotional part of her could really be a good thing, when all came round.

"Though," he continued, "I do wonder how your ninja senses seem to be absent when you're emotionally shaken, or in the presence of friends whilst in Konoha."

She raised one pink eyebrow. "What?"

He rolled his head back to stare at the ceiling before closing his eyes. "You left the light on."

Emerald eyes widened and Sakura mentally smacked herself for being so absent-minded as she got out of the bed, immediately missing its warmth when she stomped off to turn off the lights. When the darkness enclosed them she trailed back to the bed, and hopped in once again, pulling the blanket up to her nose.

"Sai?" she called through the dark.

"Hn?" he answered.

"Do you really think I can do this?"

"Yeah," he sleepily replied. "I do."

"…Thank you."

"Sure."

* * *

Then when the last day had finally arrived, Sakura set of to Tsunade. She wanted to go through the scroll a few more times before actually performing the jutsu. This needed to be executed perfectly, and the seals needed to be done correctly, in the right order.

Sakura knocked on the door, this time entering with the friendly smile, saying 'good morning, Tsunade-Shishou' as always. Tsunade had simply stated that she was ten minutes early, before handing her the scroll to let Sakura inspect it once again. Sakura had memorized everything by now already, but she was nervous and anxious, and the better she could do all this the safer it would be.

"How many have you gathered for chakra support? As you already know it says at least ten capable shinobi are required," Sakura questioned, wanting to know how many there would be there to watch her back, as she'd always watched theirs.

"Twenty three," Tsunade replied before giving Sakura a stern look, which went unnoticed as the pinkette had returned her whole attention to the scroll. "Sakura, you need to calm down. You can do this, trust me."

Sakura cast her teacher a quick glance. "And I need to know this by heart to be able to do it."

Tsunade remained silent for awhile, simply watching her student before opening her mouth. "Sakura," she said, demanding her apprentice's full attention. "I must explain something."

Sakura reluctantly looked up at her Shishou. "Yes?" Tsunade's serious expression shocked her.

"As you've heard, the Kyuubi itself isn't a very intellectual creature. When free its power is so overwhelming the Kyuubi goes mad, and it can't use its chakra effectively, and just lashes out at whatever's nearest."

Sakura nodded, being well aware of what her Hokage had said.

"So when he is put inside a body, he relies on the mental capacity of his vessel. And then is able to have the intelligence of a human."

Sakura nodded again, but then her eyes widened. "You mean Naruto?" Even though Naruto had his moments of pure genius, he wasn't the brightest out there.

"Yes. And so, we know that the Kyuubi is a cunning, sadistic beast. And he is already quite capable when residing in Naruto." She tapped her finger nails against the rough wood of her desk. "When put in _you_, you must be prepared that he will be considerably smarter."

Sakura stared at her teacher. She didn't know whether to be flattered by Tsunade indirectly calling her intelligent, or to be scared that the Kyuubi would use that intelligence. She imagined it would be a laughable matter if brought up while out dining with her friends, a way for Sasuke to annoy Naruto further. But in this context it was dead serious, and Sakura knew Tsunade was right.

"You understand what this means, do you not?" The blond asked.

"Yes, I do." It meant that the Kyuubi would be even stronger, more cunning and harder to control when placed in her. But then again, even if his attack was heightened, it was her brain, so her defense would be at the same level as his attack.

"Good."

And then the silence stretched again, until a knock could be heard on the door.

"Come in!" Tsunade called.

And in came Shizune, bowing her head in respect. "Tsunade-sama, the elders require to speak to you at once."

"Right, of course they would," she sighed. Then she said; "Sakura, I want you to meet me at the decided place half an hour before the said time. We need to prepare everything."

"Understood," Sakura obliged.

And then the Hokage and her assistant left out the door, leaving Sakura by herself.

She quickly averted her attention to the scroll, efficiently blocking all thoughts out of her mind. She didn't want to be depressed. She needed to see this out a new light. Maybe Sai's drawing had startled her somewhat? What if she'd be able to be a true hero? What if she'd be set free? What if she'd be able to protect her loved ones, finally be able to repay them for all the times they'd protected her? But then her thoughts were clouded. What if the Kyuubi broke free under the transferring and destroyed everything she cherished? And, what if she'd successfully transferred it, and it drove her insane, forcing _her _to destroy everything she cherished?

She shook her head; no. That was not seeing it from a different light. She clenched her jaw and fists. _I will_, she resolutely thought_, successfully accomplish this._ No second thoughts. If she succeeded she was going to save thousands of lives. She was _not_ going to back down.

* * *

The day passed slowly, the night likewise. Once again Sakura hadn't been able to sleep. She had refused to take Tsunade's sleeping tonic in fear of having nightmares again, so her nerves and worry kept her awake. She was terribly afraid, and she considered asking Sai to stay the night. But she decided against it. Even though he didn't show it, he really did worry about her, and she didn't want to trouble him more than she already had by seeking his consolation. She needed to prove that she was strong and independent, that she was capable of this.

So, due to her stubbornness, she didn't get one wink of sleep.

When she padded out her door in the early morning, she glanced at the early morning orange streaked sky above her before heading off to the meeting spot.

They had needed a place where they could be without being interrupted, without going too far from the village. So, they decided to have it above the Hokage monuments.

It took Sakura some time to get there, but when she arrived, she stood at the edge and gazed out over her home. The sight was breathtakingly beautiful. The mountains around her were a barren wasteland, dry and empty. Below her the tiny village teemed with ant-sized life; she felt like she could just reach out and pluck the miniscule people off the streets. The forest of death stretched around her as far as she could see, held at bay by the mighty Konoha walls.

She marveled over the sight. Now that she saw it from a different light; she cherished her home more than ever, wondering if she was going to survive this task of hers and be able to see it again. In that moment she decided that she'd come here in the future, force her boys to join her, and have little picnics or just have a nice time together.

Being fifteen minutes early, Sakura sat down on the hard surface of the mountain top, and awaited Tsunade's arrival.

While she waited, her thought's fought between being optimistic and pessimistic. Was she going to die today, and doom her home and friends to death? Or was she going to survive, successfully protect both her friends and village and possibly the world? The odds pointed at the second, fortunately. But then again, was the demon going to drive her crazy, and confuse her until she turned upon her allies? Or would she put it in its place, and make sure it stayed there? She couldn't be positive, but she knew that even though she was emotional, she had a strong mind. She wasn't about to let the demon have its way with her.

Sensing the presence behind her, Sakura stood and turned around. She bowed her head in a respectful greeting.

"Are you ready?" Tsunade asked.

"As ready as I can be." Sakura answered sincerely.

"Good. You should start drawing the circles then." The older woman looked around and then pointed at a fairly flat surface. "There would be good."

Sakura nodded, stepped over to the spot and then stood in the middle of it, looking around her, trying to decide where to start. Then she drew chakra to her right index finger, and formed a small, sharp green chakra tip to her finger – the chakra scalpel-, and bent over to curve one large, oval circle into the ground. She then proceeded to curve twenty-three smaller circles around it, and then linked all the circles to the center one, the bigger oval.

The scroll had detailed the performance of transferring at length, explaining everything from start to end. The chakra suppliers were to stand in the twenty-three smaller circles, pumping chakra into the center oval where Sakura would be working on Naruto and using said chakra. It was actually quite simple for them, all they needed to do was concentrate on channeling their chakra, and then Sakura would do the rest.

Sakura bit her lip. She doubted she'd be able to do this 'easily' as Kakashi had said. 'The rest' was much more complex than channeling chakra. Sure, there was only two handseals, but that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was where Sakura needed to put, and keep, her chakra in the same places at the same time. What she was going to do was actually what you could describe as paint seals made with chakra on the walls of Naruto's seal, and then make a chakra tunnel from him to her and channel the Kyuubi. Sakura needed to get used it being clamped inside her, and do the same process that she'd done with Naruto to herself, only the opposite.

Then there was the fact that while she did that, she also needed to stitch Naruto's opened seal closed again; such a strong seal being left open would let life-force leak out if not closed fast enough.

Then she needed to concentrate her whole soul on the beast in approximately three days and three nights, to complete the seal. The others wouldn't be needed for this, so she would be doing this part entirely alone.

"Sakura," Tsunade's voice snapped Sakura out of her thoughts."You're staring at nothing."

"Ah, sorry," Sakura said, twirling a long lock of her pink hair between her fingers. "I'm just nervous. This whole thing is so insanely intense and complicated it feels unbelievable."

"Understandable, but it'll work out fine. I'm pretty sure that you've accomplished plenty of things that are more difficult than this."

Sakura blinked at her teacher.

"You know, like the time you saved Kiba from dying of those thousands of dog bites that would have had him dead within minutes hadn't you been there," she drawled, crossing her arms in front of her. "Or the time you saved that little newborn girl with the immense chakra supply. And her mother."

"Yes, I remember that," said Sakura, remembering with a frown the hardest obstacle she'd confronted in her days as a shinobi. The newborn had had a much too great amount of chakra, and being so young she hadn't had any control over it whatsoever, and was threatening to destroy many things around her. Sakura had used all her strength to do something she hadn't thought possible; control someone else's chakra.

Sakura's discovery had saved both the baby's and her mother's life that day, but it was highly classified information. Only Tsunade and the other medics who had been in the room that day knew of it. It was much too dangerous; if anyone were to find out about it, they'd try to learn it themselves. And not anyone could accomplish this, thus many would die trying, and likely bring the ones they were testing it on with them.

"But," Sakura started. "It's not the same thing. This is going to be someone I know, and my nerves will be in the way."

Tsunade sighed. "Sakura, what you are doing now is searching for things that might make this thing end badly. There's no point in that. And don't make me repeat that one more time."

Sakura scoffed lightly. Her teacher was right, as always. How Sakura had managed to avoid noticing this one small fact escaped her. She huffed, blowing a few strands of pink hair out of her face. "I understand, Tsunade-shishou. Thank you for informing me on that."

Then Sakura fetched a hair band and pulled her hair into a high ponytail to keep it from getting in her way later. It was almost time, she realized, and soon she felt the presence of the main event and her other teammate.

She turned to face them and smiled.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto greeted with that goofy smile of his, skipping over to her and giving her a great hug.

"Hey Naruto," Sakura breathed out, smiling into his hair, basking in his familiar scent. She threw her arms around him and squeezed him back. Oh, her dear Naruto, her dear, beloved Naruto.

Resentfully he pulled away after a while, and stared into her eyes. "You sure you want to do this?" he asked. Then he quickly added, seeming to understanding that his words could sound doubting in her ability to do it, "you sure you want this beast inside you?"

She merely smiled at him sincerely. "I'd do anything for your safety, Naruto. You and Sasuke." She glanced at Sasuke, who was unsuccessfully trying to wear a nonchalant look.

He snorted. "Yeah, me and Naruto and everyone else in this world."

She smiled sadly at him. He really wasn't good at showing that he was worried. "Oh Sasuke, don't worry, I can't afford failing." She teased. "I need to stay here with you and make sure you guys don't cause too much trouble for the villagers. You guys just can't take care of yourselves, honestly."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "We don't need you to look after us, dork."

She laughed weakly and made her way to him. "You really need to work on expressing your feelings, Sasuke." She said, then embraced him into a tight hug, and sighed. He stiffened a little, obviously not used to close contact, but returned the hug after a while.

"So," she sighed into his shirt, and then tilted her head back to look up at him, "are you ready for the long days awaiting us now?"

He scoffed. "Are you?"

Sakura smiled at him. "Yes, I am." And with that she let him go.

Soon after that, all the others came at almost the exact same time. All of Sakura's shinobi friends were there to help her, and she felt oddly relieved to know she'd have their support.

Sai walked up to her and she stole a quick hug from him too, before he could slink off to the others.

Kakashi came last, of course, but at the exact time of the meeting, it being the others who were a tad too early. He ruffled her hair as he passed her, messing her ponytail up, but Sakura couldn't possibly mind. She just redid it. It was his way of showing his affection, as he was similar to Sasuke in that matter; friendly hugs made him feel awkward.

Sakura clenched her fists, closed her eyes and let out a sigh. Everyone was here. It was time. She opened her eyes and turned to face them, as they all stood in their own circle. They all watched her, waiting for her to act.

Sakura was sweating, felt uncomfortable in her comfiest outfit and was starting to shake slightly. She felt like she should say something. Something to further assure them that she wouldn't fail at this. But for all her intelligence, she couldn't find the right words. So she settled for the easiest, basic question. "You guys ready?"

Some nodded and some yeah'd in agreement.

Sakura shot them a brilliant smile, and said, "Now let's get this orange fur ball, shall we?"

"Hell yeah!" shouted Kiba.

"Go get him," encouraged Ino.

"Show it who's boss!" exclaimed Tenten.

Sakura brightened up. Her sudden, not thought-through speech hadn't really fit into the situation, she figured. But her fellow shinobi didn't seem to mind. It seemed to have gotten their spirits up, or maybe they were just trying to boost hers.

She made her way to the center circle, to where Naruto stood and smiled a determined little smile at her. "Give him what he deserves, Sakura-chan."

A quite nervous giggle escaped her lips. He made it sound like Sakura was going to kill it. "Sure thing." Then she spoke up, directing her words once again to the whole crowd. "You all should sit down. These will be long days and nights, so bear with me. Two of you will have a break at a time, so that the lot of you don't exhaust yourselves. Tsunade will inform you when you can leave, but as you might understand: further conversation is not aloud, due to my need of utter concentration."

They all complied quietly, and sat cross legged in their respective circles. Sakura herself then did the same, and mentioned for Naruto to lie down, who at first flashed her one last smile, before turning his gaze upwards at the sky. Sakura had informed him on what was going to happen to him. He was ready, and Sakura knew it was time.

Slowly, carefully she placed a hand over his temple, and with a tiny burst of chakra, he was fast asleep, looking utterly at peace.

She shot him a sad smile. Then she drew her hands down to the edge of his t-shirt, and pulled it up just enough to see the whole seal tattoo. It swirled around his bellybutton in all its might, with all the squiggles, and Sakura felt more determined than ever. _I'm going to get this thing out of you, Naruto._

She placed her hands fractions above the seal. "I need your support now." She said simply and at once she was overwhelmed by all the chakra that crept its way into her, refreshing her and filling her with energy. She smiled. "Thank you. I will begin now."

Then she rested her palms on his abdomen, closed her eyes and let some of her chakra flow into Naruto, and immediately bumped into the strong dark barrage which was the seal.

She furrowed her brows in concentration, and tuned out of the world, letting her touch and chakra being the only thing she felt. Sakura accurately painted the wall with chakra, remembering the exact details of the seals from the scroll. The more precise she was with this part, the easier the rest would be.

Sakura could swear she heard a silent, echoing growl, but ignored it. At the precisely same moment she had swiped the last line, the rumbling growl emitted into a ferocious snarl that sent chills down her spine, and she was sucked straight forward into darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks go to xXCraveCatalysmXx for betaing this thing. :)

And thank you everyone who reviewed, alerted or favorited. They bring me the greatest happiness I know of! 8D

* * *

"Hold your position!" Instructed Tsunade when her fellow shinobi had become alarmed and the chakra flow had become unstable. It was important to stay level and stable for Sakura to have best access of it.

The Hokage couldn't really blame them, though. Sakura had just been consumed by a great bright orange glow, emitted from Naruto's seal. She was splayed on top of him, and could be dead for all Tsunade knew.

This hadn't been expected. Tsunade tried to remember if the scroll had mentioned any of this. But no, there had been nothing.

"We have to trust Sakura right now, and let her trust us by keeping the torrent of chakra steady!"She explained, and they settled down almost completely.

A drop of sweat trickled down the leader's brow, and she ached to swipe it away. But she couldn't interrupt the hand seal. Letting out a deep sigh, Tsunade hoped Sakura was safe and that for everyone's sake she would hurry herself back to her body.

* * *

Dumbstruck that not only her mind had been sucked in, but also her soul, she blinked up at the cave-like ceiling. The low growl was still quiet, but its source was closer. Sakura hurled herself off the ground, and looked around furtively.

She was in a large dungeon, water dripping from the ceiling, and her feet were submerged in inch high water. She was in the seal.

Sakura's heart beat rapidly in her ribcage, threatening to break free, as Sakura swiftly slipped closer to the source of the growl. Before her were humongous prison bars, holding the darkness behind it captive with a large paper seal plastered over it.

The Yondaime's seal.

A narrowed pair of eyes glared viciously at her from behind it, and she stopped right in her tracks.

What was she supposed to do? There had said nothing about this in the Sage of Six Paths' scroll. Was she to confront the Kyuubi head on? Use her chakra directly on it?

"Kunoichi." The beast's rumbling growl came through its teeth, baring sharp fangs at her. "What are you doing here?"

Through fear and dread Sakura contemplated her actions. The demon's eyes were cunning, almost as if they knew everything Sakura was thinking and feeling, and laughing at her. Somehow those eyes that could only fit a murderer filled her with disgust, burning hate. Swallowing, she hardened her eyes as she looked up at it, deciding it best to be honest. "I'm here to rid Naruto of you," She explained.

"You don't faze me, little girl. I can smell your fear. I can hear your frantic heartbeats. You don't have the guts to kill me."

Emerald orbs narrowing immediately, she snapped. "Don't flatter yourself. I'm not here to kill you." And it wasn't the only thing that frightened her. There was that cutting worry of failing, of not being able to save Naruto.

"Ah," Its eyes widened a fraction in realization. "Do you plan to suppress me then?" It scoffed. "There's no way you can do that alone."

"Who said I'm alone?" Sakura questioned, and realized with relief that the Kyokugaisha had taken over, and her fear and anxiety were steadily seeping out of her. "I will not fail at this, and you will be successfully sealed into me." No hesitation could be heard in her voice.

Another fierce growl rumbled through the dungeon at this, the whole ground trembling under its force.

"You sound sure of yourself, but I won't go so low as to make you my Jinchuuriki."

She gave him an empty stare. "I do not care about your pathetic feelings. Nor do I want to have you. I only care about Naruto." Slowly, firmly she channeled chakra to her clenched fists. "And thus I shall remove you from him."

An incorruptible force was starting to tug her backwards, and she nearly stumbled. "I will leave you for now," slipped out of her.

And then she was yanked backwards, away from the pits of darkness where the Kyuubi reigned.

Opening her eyes, she noticed her upper body was sprawled over Naruto, and quickly, but carefully, she sat up straight, sure to keep her hands in place over the tattoo.

She noticed the relieved and surprised looks on her comrades' faces, and shot them a faint smile before once again shutting her eyes and entering her own world of concentration, leaving all sense of time and space, tracing the tunnel the opened seal had revealed with her chakra, and found the Kyuubi relatively easily. She then removed one of her hands from Naruto's abdomen, and put it on her own, palm flat against bellybutton.

She forced her chakra into herself, and slowly formed a pit of chakra into the same area as Naruto's. She winced at the pain, it was a kind of pain she hadn't felt before, nagging at her insides. It was torturous; she was carving a hole into herself, so slowly she had to fight the urge to speed the process. But she couldn't do that. If she accidentally made a mistake, she was doomed. It took a painstakingly long time, but she finished it.

Now she needed to channel the Kyuubi.

She sighed thankfully; her own chakra would have been gone by now, and she gathered the chakra donated to her and connected hers and Naruto's seal with a green, glowing bubble of chakra, impenetrable from both the inside and outside.

The Kyuubi was furious. It was tearing, clawing and biting at her chakra, but in its still slightly sealed form and with Sakura's control, Sakura knew there was nothing it could do to break her grasp on him. Especially now with the immense chakra supply she had.

Even so, it was a struggling battle, and Sakura couldn't afford to let her guard down. If she did, he would break free and lash out at her, and then put the rest of her village and its inhabitants in ruin.

Bit by bit, at a frustratingly slow pace, Sakura channeled the beast from Naruto to her, and it was becoming harder and harder to concentrate. The Kyuubi was still thrashing wildly in her hold, and now he was doing it inside of her body, too. Sakura felt as if a piece of her was being taken, and she was starting to feel oddly numb.

Despite this, Sakura shoved the disturbing and awkward feeling aside, not willing to let anything break her strong concentration. The Kyokugaisha was helping her, and Sakura was suddenly so sure of herself that she was afraid of getting too cocky, and end up clumsily doing something wrong. But Kyokugaisha blocked these thoughts, and filled her with the confidence and assurance she needed.

Another long time passed, as she had entirely drawn the Kyuubi out of Naruto, and the beast was now residing within her. A foreign warmth spread through her body, and for a split second she felt remarkably at peace. But the calming warmth was interrupted by cold dread, as she, to her anguish and worry, felt a few traces of a different type of energy emitting out of Naruto.

A gasp of panic escaped her lips.

His life force!

* * *

Ah, geez. I'm really sorry this took so long time. The only explanation I have is that... uh, stuff happened. Yeah.

I promise to try to get the next chapter up faster for you guys.


	4. Chapter 4

Er, words. What to say when you've kept people waiting for such a long time, especially when you've told them you were going to be quick.

...

Well, I'm really sorry. That's all I have to say.

Credit goes to Bratney for betaing this for me. And then, special thanks to TeenageCrisis for getting me to get this thing uploaded so soon. :) Yes, soon, because who knows how much more I would've postponed this if it weren't for her.

* * *

Panicking at the sensation of the force in the air she widened her chakra shield to engulf Naruto wholly into it, desperately trying to keep his life from seeping out of him. It was leaking so rapidly, at this rate he'd be dead within minutes. She forced herself into him, and proceeded to shut the gates to his seal again.

She wouldn't let him die. She was going to save him. He trusted her, and she wouldn't let him down. But somehow, to her anguish, the chances of her doing just that were growing considerably.

Someone shouted her name in the back of her mind, and she was snapped out of her world and opened her eyes, though still managing to keep her both hands in place and her chakra in strong enough hold. She witnessed her green bubble flaring, it mixing with a different type of orange energy, and her eyes widened. Naruto!

She was ready to cry at both seeing and feeling him dying at her hands, and she was about to continue her closing his gaping seal, but the voice stopped her.

"Sakura! You need to seal the Kyuubi! If you do it now, there will still be time to save…" the person kept on talking, but Sakura ignored it completely, as she quickly turned her attention to her own seal.

Grief washed over her as she began to form the grand seal in herself. It took too long for Sakura, too long for her to be able to save Naruto. He was dying! She had promised him that she would take care of him, he had trusted her, and she was failing him!

Minutes passed and the gaps of time between Naruto's breathing and heartbeats were growing considerably. A hopeless whimper escaped Sakura's lips as she tore her eyes away from him to close them, in hope of heightening her concentration again. If she let her emotions get the best of her, she'd loose him for sure.

There was something behind those cold and harsh shinobi rules that was so correct that it hurt. An emotional shinobi would never succeed. Emotions weakened you, weakened your concentration. It was true for Sakura and everyone she knew, except for Naruto, that is. He had always seemed to be fueled by emotions.

Even so, tears crept their way down her cheeks, and she let them. She barely noticed them as she pumped her chakra into her gaping seal, building up the almost finished wall. Only a little left and she would be able to work on Naruto again.

But, as the last bit was closed up, Naruto's body went completely still.

Sakura snapped her eyes open, and dropped her high concentration and the bubble shield around them dissolved, shattering into a million tiny shards. Throwing both her hands to his seal she ferociously, desperately pumped chakra into him, quickly erasing the chakra seals she had just painted there; they seemed to be glued there, refusing to disappear.

No. Nononono. "Naruto!" her terrified scream pierced the silence, not noticing how the day had turned to night, not noticing how the people around her were watching them quietly, sadly and full of hope, not noticing how Tsunade hurriedly ran up to her and put a hand on her shoulder, whispering soothing words to her.

Sakura shook the hand off her shoulder and sobbed. Breathing suddenly became so difficult for her. "Naruto! Naruto, Naruto, Naruto!" she cried. "No, Naruto, wake up!"

Her seals had been removed, his seal stitched up again, but he still wasn't moving. So she gripped his shoulders tightly and started shaking him recklessly, trying to ignore the way his body limply followed her movements. "Hey, you're closed up again! There's no reason to not open your eyes!"

Two hands enclosed Sakura's wrists but she tore free of them, growling protectively over Naruto at whoever it was who dared to interrupt her.

It was Sai, Tsunade standing directly behind him. Sai had some sort of distinct upset showing in his expression; his brow was a little too furrowed, his jaw just barely too clenched to be that steady blank face he normally wore. From the years of seeing her hold her exterior blank, Sakura had learnt to see through her teacher. That let down and sorrow mixed into one had been masked with some supposedly kind sort of pity.

Sakura's eyes lowered and softened and she let go of her steel grip on Naruto's shoulder, instead laying half over him and sobbing. "Naruto…" she whimpered, and her hands gripped the material of his shirt. This wasn't right. It had happened so incredibly fast, that she just couldn't believe that it was real. No, she refused to believe it was real. Naruto wasn't normally this temperature. He was always boiling hot, always a warming comfort.

Once again, a hand came to her shoulder. "Sakura, calm down," said a strained voice, marked with sorrow. Sakura recognized it as Sasuke's. But at the same time she was positive it wasn't Sasuke. His voice was always monotone, and when it wasn't, there were only hints of annoyance or amusement, and nothing else.

Sakura felt so bewildered. She was in doubt. No way could she have killed Naruto. But her feelings, the voices around her and the soft sobs emitting from her comrades tended to differ. Her mind was a mess, and Sasuke was telling her to calm down? She had just caused Naruto's death, and he was telling her to… calm down? She felt so warm, and she was suddenly so viciously angry.

She reluctantly stood up, hunching her shoulders as they shook with sorrow. She glared at him and he had a look of shock on his face. "What?" she hissed. A little voice in the back of her head told her that this wasn't Sasuke's fault; that she was overreacting, but she pushed it aside. "You want me to calm down?" She took a step towards him, careful not to step on Naruto, and Sasuke took a careful step back, looking worried. "You try to comfort me, after I killed him?" she whispered.

He furrowed his eyebrows, and there was a short pause as he thought of the best way of replying. "It wasn't your fault," was what he finally said, and despite its simplicity, it awakened deep feelings within Sakura.

"I just killed your best friend, and you don't hate me!" she wailed, causing him to flinch. "What kind of friend are you?" she taunted and then hurled herself at the hurt and bewildered Sasuke, who dodged just in time. Sakura's fist collided with the ground, which ended up as the greatest crater she had ever accomplished.

In an instance several shinobi were onto Sakura, and she trashed in their arms, until she finally calmed down, slumping in their hold and returned to sobbing. "Naruto…"

Tsunade walked up to her, and bent down to face Sakura. Sakura saw the grief behind her stony expression, and if possible, it made Sakura feel even worse.

"Sakura, you need to take care of the last step in the transferring. You need to seal the Kyuubi completely. The way it is now, he can affect you way to easily, as you just demonstrated." She sighed. "Your eyes are orange, and their going black."

Sakura's eyes widened at that. So that's what the heat was. "But Naruto-"

"There is nothing you can do for Naruto, however much you wish it." Then she added admittedly. "Not in this state, at least."

"What?" Sakura asked, suddenly finding a little spark of hope, unknowingly pulling a little with her arms, causing her restrainers to tighten their grips on her.

"If you get complete control of the Kyuubi, you can use his chakra to save Naruto."

The spark of hope flailed. "But that'll take days!"

"Yes, but Naruto's already dead," her teacher explained, causing Sakura to wince. "He won't be deader in a week."

Sakura let out a small sigh of relief. "Are you sure?"

Tsunade shook her head. "I'm not sure of anything, but I think it's worth a try." She then straightened. "We'll take Naruto down with us to the hospital and keep his body from hardening. You'll stay up here, debating with that Kyuubi. We'll leave two shinobi up here to guard you."

And with that, Tsunade signaled for the others to follow her down the trail leading to their village. Jiraiya gently picked Naruto's limp body up before heading down after her, and soon there were only four others left; Sasuke, Sai, Kakashi and Ino; being the ones holding Sakura back.

Sakura blinked as they slowly, warily released her. The heat that had flushed through her was dissipating, and she was suddenly feeling very full and at the same time very cold. A shiver escaped her frame as a gust of wind brushed against her.

Slowly, she turned around to face her comrades, and stared at them. They returned her stare, with sad, corrupted eyes.

She smiled at them and gave them thumbs up, the same Naruto had given her that day several years ago, and she promised, "I won't let you down."

"Good luck, Sakura," Sasuke's voice came out. It wasn't the same monotone voice as usual, but one strained by sorrow.

"You can do it," Ino assured, even though it was clear she was doing everything in her force to keep the tears from escaping from her eyes.

"Get Naruto back, Sakura," Sai said, his expression hard, not letting the tiniest emotion leak out.

"We believe in you," her sensei repeated, his one visible eye tired from emotion.

The repeated line sure was getting old, Sakura thought bitterly as she offered them a last, torn smile.

Then she walked away from them, back to the oval in the middle and lay down there. Sakura noticed that Naruto's body warmth still lingered there, and Sakura inhaled as she put her hands over her belly. Oddly enough, she felt like an involuntary mother, carrying an unwanted child in her tummy. She'd always thought it wrong of the women who chose abortion instead of giving the baby a life. But now Sakura thought she could understand how they felt; the feeling of some hopeless creature inside you, living off of you, demanding you to give it your life and affection for it to be able to survive. Because if you didn't take care of it, rejected it, you'd be the monster, instead.

Now, Sakura's situation wasn't wholly that same, but the Kyuubi was demanding her life now, living off of her, and demanding her to give it her fullest attention, or it would grow mad and revolt against her.

And she was immediately sucked into herself when she let her senses go and her concentration was fixed on the pit of her stomach where the demon lay.

* * *

Kyuubi was furious. His feelings were so messed up, and he was confused. There was something very wrong with this. He, the mighty nine-tailed demon, had been transferred. It was such a humiliating event that he had started to do everything in his power to wound the little girl. But she hadn't budged. Not even once. It was as if his actions didn't matter to her at all. Her hold was resolute and immobile, no matter what he tried.

He thought he'd die from the degradation. Until he could catch the whiff of life in the air. It had caused a wicked grin to form over his mouth, making him bare his menacingly sharp teeth. That little brat was dying. Finally. It was sad and frustrating that Naruto couldn't have died earlier and the Kyuubi would be set free, but nevertheless, the beast was pleased to see him go. The kid had had it coming.

And, due to the Kyuubi's new Jinchuuriki's strong love for the little cub, the girl was getting unstable. Her recently firm concentration was wobbling, and the Kyuubi was amazed by how easily affected she was. With just one tiny push from him, her emotions rose and were uncontrollable.

The grin grew. This was silly. Would she really be this easy to take over? He pushed a little more, but was both surprised and agitated by the sudden wall. He'd been mistaken. Her emotions for Naruto had been so full of hurt love, and she was so stubborn, that it would be impossible for the Kyuubi to make his move.

He snarled, the grin fading away immediately. This girl was too damn confusing. Even that little cretin had been less emotional than the girl. It was hard to beat this girl when she was so foreign to him. Reluctantly he thought he'd just have to lie back and wait until he knew her better.

But wait. The Kyuubi sniffed in the air. He caught the traces of something that would be of great help to him. Oh, the sweet scent of anger and disappointment. And sadness. The scent was swelling over with devastation. All ingredients to his escape and freedom.

Now, he almost hurled himself over that little piece of control she had left. However little he knew of her, he had already learned that this girl ran on emotions. Maybe she wouldn't be as much of a pain as he originally had thought.

And he almost got her. He hadn't expected her emotions to be wild. They were slippery little suckers, as soon as he got a hold of them they slipped out of his grasp. It annoyed the hell out of him. But he tried, and he tried. Until they calmed down a little, and weren't big enough to even hold onto anymore.

Someone had successfully calmed her down.

So, once again, the Kyuubi sat back and was forced to wait. This wasn't fair. All the Kyuubi really wanted was to be free, and he'd gotten his hopes up, time after time, but they'd dropped just as fast. The humans had no right to toy with him the way they did. No way.

He wanted to be free, so that he could roam the world once again and hope to find that which he was searching for. That thing which frustrated him every time he thought about it, due to him not knowing what this thing was.

The Kyuubi waited. And soon he realized the girl was entering herself. He snorted. What would that accomplish? It would only give them a closer bond; he'd be able to read her better. That was one of the things he'd learned while the squirt had been alive; the more they had almost direct contact the easier it was for the Kyuubi to take over. Didn't humans ever learn? But then again, it was beneficial for him, was it not?

The Kyuubi hadn't taken on any form, so he was pretty much scattered everywhere in the dark pit she'd dumped him in. Or rather, he was the dark in the dark pit. She'd definitely not be able to see him. No, it would be impossible for her.

And then, she dropped from nowhere, landing on nothing and then standing to get up on this nothingness. The Kyuubi had been encountered by what he had expected; a determined looking Kunoichi who stunk of fear. Her pretense didn't work on him. Though, what he hadn't expected was the weird swirly feeling in his stomach that he'd gotten as soon as she'd arrived. He ignored it. It was too troublesome for him to care.

The girl was looking around, supposedly searching for something that wasn't darkness. Either she gave up or found what she was looking for, and settled for staring out at nothing. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, she did something odd with her chakra. She mostly just let it out, masterly using it to trail and search through her surroundings.

The Kyuubi instinctively held up against the trespassing chakra, and snarled as he'd fallen for her trap. She had merely been trying to find him. Of course.

The girl snorted humorlessly. "Why do you even try?" she drawled dryly. Her voice was torn and weary from sorrow, but it was still as mocking as she had intended it.

The Kyuubi snarled viciously at her ignorance. "You humans believe you own everything. Is it that hard to understand that great creatures such as me do not thrive while sealed away in petty humans?"

She didn't answer his question. Instead, she seemed to be thinking hard on something else.

The Kyuubi's upset growl rumbled through the pit, but she seemed unfazed by it. Then, another unexpected thing happened.

_What am I supposed to do now?_ The words echoed through the Kyuubi's mind, and he couldn't quite place them anywhere. _The scroll hadn't said what to do while inside. Should I pursue him into giving up? Or should I just dominate him with chakra?_ There was a slight pause. _...Is that even possible?_

Then, understanding dawned on him, the Kyuubi roared out in laughter. Ridiculous. "If you do not even know how to defeat me, why do you even try?"

With eyes big as saucers, she hesitantly pondered over the possibility that he might just have read her thoughts. Then she turned completely bitter. Apparently, she was emotionally exhausted, and was very irritable about it at the moment. And she was about to turn her bewilderment upon the one who had caused her all this distress; the Kyuubi. "Why I try? You moronic monster haven't even understood that I already have come halfway, by taking you out of Naruto and into myself." Her eyes snap shut at the stab in her heart after mentioning Naruto.

Right. This whole mind reading thing was fun and all, but it was starting to get on the Kyuubi's nerves. He didn't want to know how sad she was about this, how upset she was with that. Why was he hearing her thought at all in the first place? That hadn't happened with Naruto. Sure, he'd been able to read the little brat like an open book, but based on his emotions, not his thoughts.

And it couldn't be because of the different sealing type. He was almost positive of it.

The Kyuubi didn't ponder any further on it, and decided to answer the little girl's stupid comment. She had completed the thing already; whatever it was she was trying to do now was only making things worse for her. Not that the Kyuubi would complain. "You meant when you killed your best friend when you said halfway, right?" Her eyes opened, and dared him to continue. Which he did. "It's quite sad that he died, since I was looking forward to ripping him apart." And to add to his point, he let out a low, rumbling chuckle.

With clenched teeth and tight fists, Sakura trembled slightly. She glared straight before her with hateful distaste, her left upper lip curling and her eyes narrowing. "If you ever talk about Naruto again, you'll thoroughly regret it," she snarled viciously.

And she really meant it. She even thought of several creative and colorful ways to cause the demon as much pain as possible.

Well, see it on the bright side. At least she couldn't kill the Kyuubi without killing herself. So death wasn't going to be a possibility, since she knew she would be needed alive.

A sudden urge to scream, stomp and rip out her hair broke out in Sakura, but she resolutely stood put, and succeeded in ignoring it.

The Kyuubi was overwhelmed by an impulse of his own; to just agree to her. Just get her sadness out of his head.

Now the Kyuubi was extremely startled, and then he got infuriated. What the heck was happening to him? Even his instincts were telling him to do what the impulse had said.

So he gave in, not finding any reason to keep on dwelling. "What do I have to do to get you out of my head?" He drawled, letting his annoyance and upset pour into his voice.

She ignored the way he'd asked his question, and went directly to answering. "I need you to help me resurrect Naruto."

He should have known. Funny thing she hadn't thought it, since then he would have. "Fine." He couldn't help but add those words which had been tickling inside him. "But don't expect me to give in to your every wish. You'll have to defeat me completely for that to occur."

Her expression hardened, even though she was half relieved. She nodded briefly, before twirling back up where she came from, leaving Kyuubi alone in the pitch black hole she'd stuffed him in.

* * *

I'm not going to promise anything, but I'm sincerely going to try to get the next chap up pretty soon. At least it won't take as long as this one did. Probably. Hopefully. Hm, no, just kidding, I'm pretty sure. :)


	5. Chapter 5

Hello. It's been some time, huh? Well, better late than never. :D

And, um, I was thinking of asking, if you're planning on reviewing (thanks for all the reviews so far! It really is so fun and encouraging to read them over and over again. 8) ), then please tell me if you think there's anything that you think I should work on. It would really help my writing. :)

I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Trying to stagger her way down the Hokage Monuments in the poor light the moon provided, Sakura attempted to get a few straight thoughts through her dull and tired head.

Everything felt so surreal, the sealing, the meeting with one of the most feared beasts in history, Naruto's death…

The thought of her blond friend made her pick up her pace, but all that accomplished was her tripping over her own feet and tumbling to the ground. She landed front first on the rocky little path, and the pebbles dug into her bare legs and arms.

Through her exhaustion, Sakura searched for some remaining strength to help her get back up on her feet. She attempted to tap into that monster's chakra for the first time, but in vain. It seemed as if everything came to gnaw at her, the fatigue, the hunger, the thirst, and the ache for something soft to lie on. How long had it been since she had started the ritual?

She turned her head to the side, though she couldn't see much due to the three feet high mound that followed the whole path and kept people from falling down the long distance to the ground. Black dots found their way to her sight, and she knew that that was a bad sign. Then a different little thing crept into her sight, and understanding that she hadn't the energy to get anywhere, she was almost content with following it with her eyes.

The ambiguous caterpillar seemed to not have any worries in the world as it made its way down the path, over the rocks. It was fuzzy, energizing yellow with soft blue dots. Looks dangerous, Sakura thought groggily. Maybe Shino would know what type it was. The only thing Sakura knew of it for sure was that it reminded her of Naruto, and it was almost laughable hadn't it been so sad.

With the last thought of telling Naruto about this colorful little caterpillar, Sakura drifted off into the world of dreams.

* * *

"…would love to see him. He's simply adorable, and I bet you'd love him," said a familiar, soft and affectionate voice. "He's got the most beautiful eyes, almost like yours, but with streaks of lightning lines around them."

Sakura furrowed her eyes. What was it the person was talking about? Then the smell got caught in her nose, and Sakura held her breath half a second. Why was she in the hospital? Oh, right, she collapsed. But why had she collapsed?

"Sakura?" queried the voice, which Sakura noticed belonged to none other than Ino.

Sakura remembered running away from something… or was she running towards something? She was scared, at least. Worried for something, someone. Naruto's name slipped past her lips before she knew it, and in that moment realization washed over her like a cold bucket of water. She shot straight up, eyes wide open, and would've jumped out of bed hadn't it been for the extreme pain that ebbed through her head and the hands pushing her down again.

"Sakura!" exclaimed one startled Ino. "It's okay. You're in the hospital. You've been out for one and a half day. Doctor estimated you to be zonked for at least five days," she said before her face turned into a scowl," but I guess the Kyuubi begged to differ."

Sakura eyed Ino through squinting eyes. "Where's Naruto?" Her head throbbed with every syllable she uttered, but it was easing rapidly. And to her surprise her weariness was being exchanged for a feel of immense energy, and she thought for a second that she could do anything. Then she came down from her high, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. No wonder Naruto was able to keep on sparring, running and training for so long.

She had a feeling that this Kyuubi would be hard to deal with until she'd gotten used to it.

When it hit her that Ino hadn't answered her question, she pried one eye up to give her a questioning look.

Ino shook her head. "I'm afraid I'm not authorized to tell you."

"What?"

"Tsunade wanted to be with you from the second you woke up."

Ino had always been good at lying. But every time she did, Sakura had picked up on, she tended to tap her index finger. And with her hand on Sakura's arm, that little tap was quite noticeable.

The second eye opened, and Sakura sat up a little, leaning against the wall at the head of the bed, this time without Ino pushing her back down. "What are you not telling me?"

Sakura should've noticed it from the beginning, but the memories and the new strength had overwhelmed Sakura into overseeing the little tremor in Ino's voice that indicated that she was worried about something. And how she had been a little too quiet.

Ino looked a little frightened at first, and they both knew Sakura had chased her into a corner with no chances of escape. She chewed on her lips a few moments, and then let out the tiniest of sighs. "Tsunade's suspicious of the sealing technique."

There was the tap again. "There's something more. Why is she suspicious?"

"Sakura, you just woke up. You need to cool down and rest a little-" Ino started, but Sakura was quick to cut her off.

"I've just killed Naruto. I have good reasons to be uptight." Then, just to save Ino from some worry, she added, "I won't run off. I'll wait until Tsunade gets here." She couldn't do anything without Tsunade anyways, as Tsunade was the one with the reviving technique itself.

The ghost of a smile could be seen on Ino's lips. "Thanks, forehead."

The smile annoyed Sakura in a way unknown to her. Did Ino have the right to smile that way right now? And at Sakura, nonetheless? No, Sakura didn't think so. "Now, there was something more you weren't telling me. Could you please tell me what it is?"

Ino scowled a little. "You needn't beg, Sakura. It's the seal mark. You know, like the one Naruto had gotten, only that yours… is a little different."

Sakura blinked. It was a different type of seal, so it only made sense that the mark would look different… but the way Ino said it produced a rock in Sakura's stomach. Quickly she unbuttoned the buttons of the hospital gown over her stomach. And she almost scoffed at the sight. In her haste she'd expected it to be some mark of the devil or similar, and even though that probably had been a paranoid and wild guess, she couldn't see how this was something to worry about. It was simply a black dot, less than the half of an inch in diameter, to the left of her bellybutton, with a few thin and squiggly lines drawn out of it, barely much longer than the dot itself. It looked pretty harmless. But…"nothing is ever what it seems, huh?" Sakura wondered out loud.

"Exactly. Believe it or not, that little thing there has been growing. In the beginning it was only a little dot. We don't know when it'll stop, or if this is the only side effect. You've gotten us all worried, Forehead."

Sakura raised an eyebrow and wore a grim smile, simply a tug at the lips. She wanted to defend herself by saying that it wasn't her fault, but it probably was. Hadn't she been there to get that scroll or persuaded Naruto into letting her hold his life in her hands, then Naruto wouldn't be here. Maybe they'd be sitting by Ichiraku, enjoying those noodles, or training in the park.

"What time is it?" Sakura asks after a few seconds of silence. She couldn't know what they would've been doing if she didn't know the time, now could she? And the room happened to be in the basement, so no windows for her ease.

"It's around noon. You're going to get your food served in a moment. Tsunade will be here anytime too."

Noon. So, they'd either be training or eating right now. Sakura bet she would've persuaded Naruto into baking those muffins she loved, and they could be eating them together, even though she hated the way they left trails of crumbs all over her outfit. "I'm not hungry."

"You know forehead, IV can only do so much. It might keep the hunger away, but it won't exactly satisfy you. Tsunade's going to make you eat."

Sakura couldn't know what they would've been eating, but she just knew it would've been happy. There was that numb pain that Naruto was gone, and it filled Sakura with wonder. It wasn't that she felt nothing. It was that she was numb. And then, the numbness rose to the surface, and her eyes were filled with big ample teardrops. "I don't want to eat," she said. All she wanted right now was Naruto's happy and smiling face together with those muffin crumbs.

"Oh, honey." Ino hushed, throwing her arms around Sakura and squeezing affectionately. It was Sakura's first hug since the whole event, and it felt as if Ino was squeezing the tears right out of her. It felt good, and Sakura wished she'd hug her even tighter.

Rippled sobs forced their way up Sakura's throat, and for the life of her she hadn't the power to stop them. She shut her eyes closed as Ino started saying soothing things like everything was going to be okay, that Sakura had done the right thing, and so on. But Sakura couldn't really concentrate on her words as the sobs grew louder and so rough they almost hurt. A wall of heat burned right through her, and she was shaking terribly in Ino's arms. She couldn't have hated herself more, and even though she needed it the most right now, she couldn't bear Ino's pity. Such a detestable person as herself didn't deserve such affection.

Sakura was too surrounded by the wall of heat to notice how Ino had started to let go, and how she had let go to go call for help and how she was not embracing Sakura anymore, and not noticing how she needn't shove her off.

She did notice those two presences that brought support and safety coming closer though, and not until they were a few yards away from her did Sakura understand how frightened she was; of everything, of the burning wall, of never seeing that one smile again, of the people who were now surrounding her.

She suddenly understood they were here to hurt her. They wanted her dead, her every limb screamed it at her. And she needed to defend herself. The danger was fatal. The danger needed to be moved aside, no matter what it took.

And with those last thoughts, she hurled herself at the enemy and her world went black again. She fell into a cold, haunting darkness, and she would never wake up again.

* * *

But she did awake, disoriented and puzzled, disorganized and lost in a big world. She wanted… she just wanted someone who loved her as mutually as she loved them by her side, right now. Nothing else mattered. She didn't care where she was, why she was there or what had happened, she just didn't. As long as she had that one person, nothing else would matter.

"Sakura," spoke such a person directly from Sakura's side, her voice a soft breeze amongst Sakura's upset thoughts.

Sakura's head snapped to the side, and she was about to throw herself at her old Shishou, but something tight refrained her from doing so. She felt shell-shocked for a while, not believing her senses. Was she tied up?

For the first time, she let her eyes sweep in the square room she was in. She couldn't say anything, just gape in disbelief. She was in one of the rooms where the dangerous shinobi were dumped in, the ones who needed to be controlled due to them being a danger - to everything.

Her bewildered gaze ran to Tsunade in seek for answers. But the look on her face told Sakura that the elder woman felt just as helpless in the situation as she herself did. "Sakura," she said, again. "You lost control. We needed to keep you under restraints while we explain some things for you. The restraints consume your chakra, so you will be more stable now."

Sakura frowned in her bemusement as she tried to remember exactly what had happened. Before she'd been knocked out – or at least that's what she assumed had happened – the most prominent things were the strong feelings, and the two dangerous presences. It had felt like she was looking through the eyes of another, as if someone else was telling her what was real and who to trust, and controlling her body.

When she tried to focus on the two presences she'd felt, tried to decipher and place them somewhere, she was startled. "Oh no, Tsunade-shishou, are you alright?" She was positive that the one presence had been Tsunade, and the other one… Kakashi-sensei?

"We're both perfectly fine. We put you to sleep before you had the time to harm anyone. Ino's a little shaken, though."

"Oh… thank goodness." Sakura would have to talk to her later. Most important was that she hadn't injured anyone badly. "Was the other person with you Kakashi-sensei?" Though, she wondered, how in the world would she be able to injure Kakashi-sensei or Tsunade-shishou?

Tsunade raised her eyebrows. "How much do you remember, Sakura?"

Sakura blinked at her. "Well… I… " What should she say? "I just know that I got scared, and then you guys came."

"You were scared of us?" Eyebrows raised almost hurt and accusingly at her.

Sakura shook her head even though Tsunade had guessed right. "No! No. I was just scared of everything. I was confused, and everything suddenly was so dangerous and it wanted to hurt me."

"I see. Well, Sakura, I'll let you go, but first you have to promise something." Tsunade's voice was stern with taints of exhaustion and she had dark rings under her eyes. Sakura wondered how long her poor Hokage had been awake.

"Of course," said Sakura.

"You can't let your emotions get the best of you. If you do, the Kyuubi will take advantage of it."

Eyebrows going up Sakura blinked at her old shishou. This was going to be harder than Sakura had imagined. "I promise." Immediately she wondered if she should have refrained from saying anything. Maybe she was best to be strapped away, locked into a sealed room next to all the other criminally insane?

A sensible little voice popped up from the back of her mind. _Of course not_, it said, _who's going to save Naruto if you stay here?_ And so, while Tsunade unbuckled the straps, Sakura was sure that she had said the right thing. If necessary, they could lock her away after the resurrection.

If Sakura concentrated hard enough on learning how to resurrect, she'd be able to block that sorrow and guilt from seeping even further into her heart.

Tsunade went over to the door and opened it for Sakura, revealing the lit hallways. "Come now, I have a lot to teach you," she ushered a little impatiently.

Sakura quickly followed her out through the door, new energy flowing through her muscles and pumping her blood that she wasn't used to. Maybe she could learn while jogging? Maybe the training would be harsh enough to help her get rid of this unnecessarily vast energy?

Sakura really did hope so.

* * *

I think that even though this chapter wasn't all that long something actually seemed to happen. Kind of. I don't know how you as a reader experienced it, but as the writer it seemed pretty event full for its length. Hm.

Well, anyways, have a good day (or a good nights' sleep, depending on what time of the day you read this.).

Until next chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

I don't own Naruto.

AN: Whoa. Has it really been, like, three years? A lot of stuff happens during the lapse of three years. Has anything exciting happened in your life?

Anyhow, three years have affected this story as well. You might notice that my writing style is different (and hopefully much, much better) in this chapter than in the previous ones. And so, I'm thinking this story needs some editing. I want to add some things and fix a lot of painful sentences. But the thing is that I don't want to change/remove something that you readers might have really liked.

So, I'm not going to rewrite the whole plot or outline of the chapters, I'll just fill them out and upgrade them. So, uh, my question to you, if you still have hope for this story, is if there was something you really liked, and which you don't want me to change. It could be anything, like the feel of a scene, or a certain wording or a whole scene. What do I know. I could focus on that part for you and try to make it better. :)

And gosh. Yes, I do feel like a prick for post-poning this update for so long. And I'm sorry for the long wait. If there actually is someone out there who remembered this story and was still waiting for this update, then thank you so much. But no matter what it might seem like, I'm not going to abandon Little Moon. This story has a certain place in my heart. :)

And I thank Bratney for betaing this chapter for me. :)

* * *

Sai questioned the healthiness of prolonging their stay at the hospital. The walls of the room they were in were painted the classical stern, clinical white. In fact, everything was so disgustingly sterilized clean, that even the orderly Sai was put off by it. He doubted that it at the moment was good for Sakura at all.

She hadn't said anything to him when they entered the room. She'd merely walked straight up to the lone bed, fallen to her knees and grasped Naruto's hand in hers. She'd brought his hand to her forehead, and she hadn't moved an inch since taking that position.

Sai hadn't known, and still didn't know, what the right action for him would be in this situation. He stood at the foot of the bed, switching between watching Naruto's deceptive face and Sakura.

Pink bangs hung in her eyes, and he could not see more than a small portion of her cheek. She might've been crying. At least her occasional shivers indicated that such were the case.

Sai wondered how it felt. Truthfully, he did not care nearly as much for Naruto as Sakura did. And yet, Sakura was the one sitting there with her warm, soft skin touching Naruto's cold and lifeless skin. There was no life in Naruto. And Sakura could both see, feel and sense this fact.

It must have hurt.

On their way to the hospital, Sakura hadn't spoken a single word. The weather suited that of a day of joy and bliss, but none of the citizens of Konoha greeted Sakura with a smile on their faces. In fact, they didn't even greet her. As soon as Sai would gain eye contact with any of them, they'd avert their gazes. As though looking upon Sakura or him was something shameful in itself.

Luckily, Sakura had not once taken her gaze off the pebbles on the street. Sai suspected that she'd already understood the rumors that had begun to spread. He himself had heard a few teenagers talking the other day.

_'Haruno Sakura, she let Naruto die?'_

_'I heard it wasn't accidental. You know she's got excellent chakra control? They say she was waiting for the opportunity to take the Kyuubi.'_

_'Yeah, I heard it was the perfect opportunity for her. Plus, did you know that she was the one who miraculously found the scroll which told them to change jinchuuriki? It's a little too much of a coincidence, if you ask me.'_

Somehow, although he detested it, he just couldn't find himself surprised. The stupidity of humans. He'd been aware of it for the largest part of his life. Yet, he noticed himself getting angry with them. He never had impulses to punch people, no matter their stupidity. But it seemed that a large part of Konoha's population was suffering from crude and brutal naivety. Sai did not do anything to them, as there was no point in it. The details of what Sakura actually was doing were kept under secrecy. He could not stop the rumors.

Sakura was lucky, though, in some senses. Her inability to dwell among masses of people after Naruto's death kept her away from the actual words that were being said about her. She could imagine, and she could guess, but she'd never know. She had always spoken kindly of the citizens of Konoha. She would be incredibly sad to hear the truth, especially now.

Thankfully, his talk with her earlier on had apparently taken some affect. She now took better care of herself; ignoring the eyes of the masses.

Sai had found that old smile of his plastered over his face as they walked the streets from his apartment to the hospital. The people they'd passed hadn't realized it.

But then of course, they were not his friends. So he hadn't expected them to see through it.

It has been five days since he'd come home to find Sakura sitting with her back against his main door. It hadn't shocked him. She was bound to show up sooner or later.

The only one who'd heard from her for a week after Naruto's death had been Tsunade, assumingly. That was at least what he'd heard from the Sasuke and the others. Many had tried to contact her, but when she'd brushed them aside with what they'd described to be a painfully forced smile, Tsunade had ordered everyone to leave her be for the time being. Sakura had apparently developed rashes and gotten even more stressed after their visits.

And Tsunade had truly given Sakura all of her knowledge, even bestowing full access to many secret scrolls to Sakura, believing and hoping that they'd give her even an inkling of inspiration.

But then Sakura had fled from the Hokage's headquarters and sought refuge at Sai's tiny apartment.

At first she barely slept. And then he realized that she hardly ate, either. And then, there was the moment when he'd seen the actual look in her eyes.

He'd been terrified, for Sakura was nowhere to be found in them. It was as though she was just a living corpse, with the sole purpose of seeking the answer of reviving the dead.

He'd called out to her, but at first she didn't react. Then he'd turned the chair she was sitting in, turning her attention from the documents and scrolls on the desk to him, by force. After explaining to her that she had to take care of herself in order to properly take care of someone else, and that her work would be sullied by her own hands if she did not see to her own needs, he'd literally slapped her. Hard.

For the life of him, it had been the only action he'd found suitable for the situation. He was the only one in their relationship allowed to act aloof and distant. He was the one who didn't talk. She had no right to act like he did, for it wasn't in her personality to do so.

Her fingers touched the growing red mark on her cheek, and she looked pleasingly alive with the shock all over her face. Her emerald eyes glimmered as she stared at him in disbelief.

"Your guard is too low around me," he informed her.

She broke then, liquid gushing out through her eyes as she threw her arms around his middle. Her embrace should've been weak with all of her bad health, but he'd never received such a painful hug from her before.

The Kyuubi's doing, no doubt. _The Kyuubi is most definitely basking in delight from all of this distress. _

"Sai," Sakura had whispered through sobs. "Sai, I need to see him. I need to see him. Sai, I need to see him."

There was no way that Sai actually saw this as a favorable idea. But he didn't decline. "If you eat, I'll take you to the hospital."

And so, she complied. She ate half a cup of ramen, and being not capable of stuffing more down her throat, she had on her own thrown the rest in the trash bin and started putting her shoes on. When she came to her coat though, her fingers couldn't cease shaking enough for her to zip it shut. Sai had to do it for her.

And now, here they were.

Sai stood there silently for another twenty minutes, until Sakura slowly turned her face up, bringing Naruto's hand to her lips instead. Her eyes suddenly had a new shine to them as she stared at Naruto. Her brow lifted, her lips parted and her back straightened.

Sai watched with curiosity as she gingerly rose to her feet, shot Sai the shortest glance in history, and sat down on the edge of the bed, scooting as close to Naruto as she possibly could without actually sitting on him.

She gently placed his hand back by his side, traced the length of his arm with the fingers of her right hand until her palm was a fraction above the skin on his temple.

Even before the soft green luminous glow, Sai got highly suspicious. Had Sakura's sanity given in to the stress? Was Sakura honestly going to examine Naruto dead on? Sai was quite positive that Sakura was breaking against some medical law that stated the ban of experimenting on people, dead or alive.

But all words that had previously been forming in his thoughts vanished when that minuscule, puny and pathetic excuse for a smile spread over her lips.

It was so beautiful that he couldn't possibly utter a singly syllable that would upset her. It seemed as though Sakura's true hardships were over.

To Sai, that smile was the best news he'd received in a long ways. Over the past few days, he'd repeatedly heard her mumble: 'maybe this can lead to something…?' only to watch her crumble the paper detachedly and throw it away. She hadn't expressed any real happiness since Naruto had died. She'd had hope, but no happiness. Sai was truly, completely relieved. It was a new experience to him; feeling such attainment because of someone else.

Sakura's hands stopped radiating that buzzing glow, and she now stood and faced Sai. She was biting her lips. "Sai, I need you to do something for me. Or rather, I need you to let me do something to you."

Her voice was raspy and weak, but it was supported by a strong will which hadn't surfaced in a long time.

Somehow, hearing those words from her didn't really frighten him, even though he understood the implications of them. He did trust her, after all.

So he nodded, and she told him to sit down for the time being. "It will probably be more comfortable for you that way," she explained.

He complied and sat in the one and only chair in the room, with Sakura moving in to stand between his knees and bending over him. Her hands came up to his temples.

"I'll talk while I do this, maybe that'll make you more comfortable."

Sai could feel the tingling sensation of her chakra against his skin. It tickled slightly, but it was in no way lethal. At least not him, when Sakura was its owner.

"It'd be best if you keep your chakra from instinctually defending against my chakra." Her eyes locked onto his. She looked a little displeased, or maybe ashamed, of what she was about to say. "I doubt it'll affect my actual work since, well. At the very least, I believe it'll be a disturbing experience to fight against me."

And directly after that, Sai understood exactly what she meant. He was blown away. Her chakra literally broke down his own chakra's natural resistance, and she fused herself with him. They were now one, only that she was the only one with control, and he was just an empty conscience. He could not move, and he could barely muster a thought together.

Sakura already deeply fatigued expression frowned deeply. "I'm sorry. I'll make it quick. I'm trying to see how the chakra is created in the body. You remember, don't you? That child that I saved. I saved a baby from her own chakra. By controlling her everything. It's easier than one may think. It's even easier than it was to learn to control your own chakra, now that I think about it. But that might be only in my case, I suppose.

"When Naruto was dying, I could feel it. The seal was left wide open, and his life-force came out. I have difficulties seeing my own chakra flow for some reason, so I have to check on you. Otherwise I'd never put you through this." She smiled meekly, and although most people wouldn't even count it as a real smile, it was candy for Sai's conscience. "I'm sorry, Sai. You're a great friend for having put up with me these past few weeks."

Sai could feel his eyes roll back, but he could still hear her. And feel her. She was everywhere, so intense, so real. He'd never felt anything like it before. Truthfully, he felt as though he would die.

But of course, Sakura would never put him in that type of danger.

"Life-force is a tricky substance."

A real smile would have adorned Sai's face, if he were capable of moving. For it was so obvious that a 'but' was on its way.

"But. I've promised Naruto, right? And I'm Haruno Sakura. This is my… new field. The controlling of other people's chakra. Death is no match for me. It's just a problem that's about to be solved, right?

"There." And so, Sakura's chakra carefully retreated from Sai's body, returning it back to him.

When he opened his eyes, Sakura wore a big smile. Her lips did not open to show her teeth, but it held a different type of sincerity which made it larger and more heartfelt than any other smile Sai could remember seeing. Her eyes met his and he was completely captivated.

Before tears escaped her eye-sockets, she stuttered; "I think we can go eat some muffins with Naruto in a couple of days after all."

* * *

AN: So, finally some happiness, huh?

Please review. :)


	7. Chapter 7

On the to-be legendary day that Haruno Sakura solved the mystery of resurrection, her mind had never been more jumbled.

If possible, while burying herself further into Sai's lap and warm arms, she was experiencing such joy that she could not breathe. She knew that there were factors, essential ones at that, which she should be taking into consideration. Factors which were deeply hurtful and even lethal, but for the life of her, Sakura could not bring herself to care.

Naruto would live.

Naruto would live.

Her dear friend, her sunshine; she'd be able to ruffle his hair again, yell at him, hug him, listen to his laugh, marvel in the warmth of his hugs.

She'd be able to see mirth in his eyes again.

Sai started hushing her, and it hit her that she was shaking. Her eyes were tearing up. Her fingers were over her face, fingers touching the lips that were smiling, feeling the warm liquid flowing down her cheeks. Her hands were trying to get ahold of her heart, but she had no control over her movements.

For a long moment, Sakura was lost in her feelings. She did not know if she was thinking, or if she was screaming or laughing. But she felt as though she would explode.

Naruto.

Her emerald glazed eyes fought to find him where he lay upon his bed and she made a fumbled attempt to get out of Sai's arms to go hold Naruto again.

But he wouldn't let her go, no matter how many times she tugged at his hold on her.

He whispered things into her ear, his breath tickling her. He was saying her name.

Finally, she turned to face him, their faces inches apart. He smelled of fear. She wondered why.

"Sakura." His eyes were deadly serious, and his voice spoke a language she could not understand. "Calm down."

A hissing sound was all that passed her lips when she tried to speak his name. Her own voice was deceiving her. She wanted to ask why he wasn't smiling and laughing as well.

When Sai's pitch-black gaze quickly glanced at something behind Sakura and narrowed, she realized deep down what had happened.

And like the flash of a thunder-bolt, her mind cleared. Her voice let out an audible gasp. It felt like seeing the blue sky after centuries of dark stormy clouds.

Without actually needing to think, her body acted on its own. She forced herself out of Sai's grip, somersaulting over the chair and landing with her back against the end of Naruto's bed.

Sasuke and Tsunade stood in the doorway, both crouching slightly, ready for Sakura to pounce. The both of them wore grave expressions. As always, Sakura rendered those emotions unfitting for her friends. She'd rather they just smile.

Sighing – with difficulty, as her heart was still racing with affection that she wasn't sure she'd ever felt before -, Sakura straightened her posture and relaxed as much as she found possibly given the situation.

She wondered if she should be worried of becoming Konoha's new freak-show, with her extreme mood swings, but she realized that she couldn't care less at the moment. Nothing but Naruto was important.

At her sudden change, the atmosphere surrounding Tsunade and Sasuke shifted quite a deal as well. After scrutinizing Sakura from head to toe, Tsunade held up her hand. "There is nothing to worry about at the moment, Uchiha."

Sai still sat immobile on the chair. He just stared at Sakura, and she couldn't quite place his expression.

"Sakura," Tsunade's stern voice came out. "Your chakra practically exploded. We thought that you…" Sakura heard that other words than the ones that came were originally meant to end this sentence, "you were losing it again." After a slight pause, she let out a lot of tension through a deep, long sigh. Her honey eyes softened and there was the tiniest upward tilt to the corners of her lips. "It's nice to see you smile again, Sakura."

Sasuke's eyes flashed behind Sakura to Naruto's resting body. Quite uncharacteristically, he could not find the words at first. There was a powerful yet silent understanding between them as his eyes met Sakura's. He was on the same page as her.

Finally he stuttered, "You… you've done it?"

Sakura herself could still not seem to find her voice. Her lips parted and closed a few times, a genuine smile still adorning them beautifully. In the end, she placed a hand over her eyes and nodded rigidly.

There was a slight silence, in which Sakura did not remove her hand and all that could be heard was her patchy breathing.

Then finally - her eyes could not observe it, yet her every other sense could. There were hurried footsteps that closed the distance in a second, and then the strong arms around her trembling shoulders and the cheek against the top of her head.

She was drowning in his embrace, but she did not mind. She'd already suffocated from happiness, so it did not matter. She stood there; hand firmly over her eyes and blocking viewers to see her tears, the rest of her literally being merged into Sasuke's.

They stood that way, silently. Sasuke did not breathe. Maybe he had suffocated as well? Was he the same as Sakura now?

She could swear that every other moment, his arms tightened around her, and she dared not move even to wrap her own arms around him, in fear that it would ruin their eternal little moment.

Finally, he opened his mouth and his lungs were filled with an ample amount of fresh air. His grip loosened, enough for Sakura to remove her hand and simply stuff her face into the fabric of his haori instead, but not enough for her to feel like she could breathe just yet. Or maybe she simply hadn't found her breath yet, and blamed it on Sasuke. She didn't know, nor did she care.

Tsunade was suddenly by their side. Sakura sensed her gingerly placing a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. Her voice was resolute yet kind. "You two need rest. And that is an order. I shall have the extra room beside my office prepared for you."

There was a moment of silence in which no one reacted to her words, before she continued. "Are you capable of performing the… resurrection tomorrow, Sakura?"

After a few moments, Sakura nodded briskly, the skin of her face rubbing Sasuke's chest.

The muscles in Sasuke's arms flexed and tightened automatically at Sakura's miniscule movement, and she let out a soundless laugh. She would not move until he moved. She did not want to move until he moved.

Tsunade's footsteps made for the exit before they stopped. "Sai, you come with me. And you two… come to my office when you're done. I will let you in on the details then."

There was shuffling, hesitation at the door, and then the open and closing of the door.

The only ones left in the room were the three original members of team seven.


End file.
